Much Needed Me Time

This weekend I went away to the lake for my annual cousin/sister weekend (with me being the sole cousin to the 3 sisters). This year my aunt also drove up with a wonderful friend from Florida to surprise one of my cousin's who turns 40 today. (In reality she doesn't even look remotely near 40. She just did a triathlon and according to Craig, our sexy waiter at Margarita's, she looks 24. I think he was pushing it a little bit with that answer). So,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATHY - you don't look a day over 33!

Since my aunt was coming my mother was able to come up for a night too, turning it into the Annual Cousin/Sister/Aunt weekend. Anyhoo, we had a fabulous time getting manicures and pedicures, drinking and eating (and eating and eating and eating - must start diet!) and shopping. I found fabulously comfy gray pants from EMS at a consignment shop for $4 (yes! $4!) and I bought 4 pairs of shoes which pretty much doubled the amount of shoes I now have for winter wear. This weekend away from reality came at a perfect time, since I was still feeling sad after losing Max last week, and we were all worrying about my dear grandmother who took a bad fall and is in the hospital. She is doing good though, and on the mend. So away I went, and the kids were so happy to see me go, which is slightly disheartening. It's not that I want them to cry and scream and cling to my legs, but they don't need to be doing happy dances as I pull out of the driveway either. They LOVE having weekends just with Daddy. On Friday on the way to school I reminded Abbey that I was going away and she said "yay!" and I asked her why she was so happy about that. She answered "I can't tell you, it's a secret." To which I replied "is it that Daddy lets you eat lots of junk, doesn't make you brush your teeth and lets you stay up as late as you want?" to which she answered "awww, who told you?"

Nothing Like Sleeping With Sand In Your Bed

Well, another vacation has come to an end. We had a fabulous and wonderful time at the ocean last week. I couldn't believe my luck actually. My boss has these houses right on the beach in Maine that they usually either rent out, or reserve for family but this year they had an open week. Actually, they had a couple of open weeks. (I am thinking that maybe the rich folk that usually shell out the big bucks for oceanfront vacation homes didn't have the extra cash this year?) Either way, their recession problems equaled a free vacation house for me, and I could not pass it up. Dennis didn't have any vacation time left (due to our aforementioned extravagant vacation taking) so it was just me and the kids. In an ironic twist Dennis ended up coming down with a nasty flu that may or may not have been swine and was home sick for practically the whole week anyway. Oh well, at least we missed the germs and his "I'm so sick I think I'm dying" man-whining. We were lucky that my parents and grandmother were able to come up for half the week and my cousin and her family came up the other half. My brother was there the whole week (the words "free" and "ocean" are right up his alley) and his girlfriend was able to take a day off and be up most of the week as well. It was hard for people to get time off because I was only offered the house about 3 weeks ago, but I was happy to forgo a week's pay and pack it up for yet another vacation, because, hey, vacationing is my life, right?

So we sat on the beach and soaked up the sun (after chasing the kids around spraying sunscreen at them while they screamed like hot wax was being dripped onto them) and even went out and bought boogie boards so that we could ride the waves in the warm ocean water. (Seriously, it was like 70 degrees, and this is MAINE we're talking about!) We walked to the pier and rode the rides and ate fried dough and played games that cost $2 where you win a stuffed animal that cost 31 cents to make. We played a very expensive round of mini-golf where everyone managed to get a hole-in-1 (well, almost everyone . . . sorry Matt). We ate lobsters dipped into melted butter and did sparklers on the beach and watched fireworks, and well, just had a perfect beach vacation. There was still the usual whining and demanding and fighting, but all in all the kids were pretty good. They have been totally spoiled though. Never again will we be going on this many vacations so close together, and I fear that I have set them up for a lifetime of summertime disappointments. Oh well, I guess they'll live.

Me and my cousin Colleen. We have vacationed together every summer for 35 years!

Cameron playing dead (notice the "boob" shells Jack placed on his chest)

Abbey the boogie boarding queen

Abbey and her Uncle Matt

Abbey and Brady riding in style


Jack was so proud to go on all the big rides with his older cousin. Here they are on their 6th ride on the rollercoaster, right in the front as usual.


Is it just us, or does everyone accumulate this many towels and crap?
(Notice the other house in the background - not ONE towel hanging off the deck!)

The whole group waiting for the tide to come in and destroy our day's work of sand castle building

On another blog-worthy note, have you ever heard of ski-ishing? We ran into 2 guys (who were apparently insane) on the beach late one night. Well, it was like 9, but that's late to me. They were wearing full-on wetsuits with flippers and everything, and they had fishing polls with them. They told us they swim out to about 40 feet of water, float there the ENTIRE night, and fish. If they catch one they let it pull them (hence, the ski-ishing part). They said they would float with the current and be at it until dawn. Yup, I thought they were nuts too.

Like A Warm Blanket

Since I can remember we have always spent a week of our summer vacation with my entire family. I'm talking aunts and uncles, cousins and grandparents, family friends. Until I was 12 we would go to the same place every year, North Haven Maine. This was a tiny tiny island off the coast of Maine way up. We used to leave our house at midnight (so exciting when you are a kid to drive in the dead of night) and drive all night. My dad would have to take a nap that day to "get ready" and our little Subaru would be PACKED to the gills with stuff crammed everywhere for our week away. Since there was no grocery store on the island we would have to bring ALL of our food with us, along with anything else we would possibly need for the week. Thinking about that now seems ridiculous. I can't imagine having to pack not only our clothes and stuff for a week away, but all the food too? And the booze? Did they pack 30 packs of Bud Light in the car? I can't remember, but it must have been there somewhere. At least there was vodka and manhattan mix, thats for sure. I can barely get away with packing for a weekend away without bringing 4 giant bags. But off we would go in the middle of the night, stopping every year at LL Bean (open 24 hours for some odd reason) to gaze at the giant fish tank while wearing our pajamas. We would arrive at the ferry station 2 days later (OK, so I guess it was about 6 hours but to us kids it seemed like a very long drive, and we were probably sleeping most of the way so it must have seemed like a week to the parents).

After a 5 hour ferry ride (again, my memory may be stretching the length of this trip as well) we arrived on the island and drove the 3 minute drive across to the other side to our cute as a button cove. 3 cottages in a semi circle around a quiet rocky ocean cove. Our place was named "Aunt Annies" and was an old 2 story house that I'm sure was haunted by the ghost of Aunt Annie herself. Her body may actually have resided in the lumpy couch. My cousins got the awesome place on the water called the "Anchorage" and when the tide was in the water was directly under the porch off the galley (that's a kitchen for all you non-nautical people). It had a bunk room with 18 bunk beds (again, there may have been around 4 but when you are 6 years old everything seems HUGE). My great aunt and uncle's place was basically 2 trailer type rectangle structures pushed together. The first had the deck and kitchen and the second had the bedrooms and bathroom. It was so cool, you had to actually leave the bedroom and walk outside and around to the front to get into the kitchen. For the life of me I can't remember the name of it though. Everything smelled like the sea air and we would have to wear lots of sweatshirts and collect starfish and dry them out on the rocks. We would find sea glass and go out in the row boat and swim in the freezing cold 45 degree water. We would dig for clams and my uncle would cook steamers and chowdah and the adults would have cocktail hour starting every day at 2. My cousin Colleen and I would find out who was eating the best dinner at what cottage and eat there. We slept in the bunk room, at haunted Aunt Annies, in the back beds of the rectangle trailer with all the old magazines. There was no t.v., no phone. We listened to our Fisher Price radio and put on shows for ourselves. I always felt safe and loved wherever I went in that cove, and vacations spent there make up my most precious childhood memories.

Fast forward 20 some odd years ahead and what do you find? We are STILL vacationing together. Some things have changed. We no longer go to our dear North Haven (I heard Aunt Annies actually sunk and collapsed right into the marsh behind it) and we have since lost our beloved Uncle Dick, but we do go to our cottages on the lake. Our places are a little more spread out now (although with the way our group has grown that is not exactly a bad thing). We now add our own spouses to the crew, as well as all the kids we've gone on to birth. This year on the Fourth of July there were 26 of us, all decked out in these super cool matching teal tee-shirts.

The best thing about our week away is that I still feel the exact same way I felt when I was a little kid. Like being wrapped in a warm blanket for a week I am completely safe, loved and protected. I love that for one week we all stop our regular lives and come together to just be together. I love that Jack and Abbey will grow up having their very own memories of their wonderful vacation weeks with their cousins, their aunts and uncles. I love that we all still get along well enough to actually want to spend a week together. We are a big close family, and I truly believe the reason we are still a close family is our commitment to having these yearly vacations together. These vacations together lead to holidays together lead to birthday parties together lead to Sunday dinners together lead to, well, lead full circle back to family.

A Camping We Will Go

Just in case this title misled anyone I should explain that when I say camping, I actually mean staying in my parents trailer with electricity, running water, AC, t.v., and a lovely if somewhat teeny tiny bathroom. Tomorrow we are off for the Memorial Day weekend,and we are very excited. It has been about 8 months since we were there and we have all missed it, especially the kids. Memorial Day is supposed to mark the beginning of summer, but with another 5 weeks of school left for Jack, it still doesn't feel too summery. Getting away to the trailer will really make me feel like summer is starting. I also get to start wearing open toed shoes to work, so woo hoo to that! The ability to wear sandals just breaks my work wardrobe choices wide open. I'm just happy that campground time is here, the time when we can head into the woods for family fun and togetherness. And you do understand that by togetherness I mean 7 people sharing one aforementioned teeny tiny bathroom?

A Slump

I think I am in a slump. Have you ever felt that way? Lately I feel like I have let myself go. My treadmill has dust on it, and I have been eating anything and everything I feel like. I finally forced myself to step on the scale yesterday morning after 2 months of neglect, and it showed. 7 pounds. At the beginning of the summer I had lost 5 with grand plans to lose the final 15. But now I've backtracked up 7. I did quit smoking this summer, so I guess some weight gain should be expected and is a small price to pay, but it doesn't seem so small now. I have always been an "all or nothing" type. I'm exercising, I'm drinking my water and eating right, taking my vitamins and flossing my teeth. But since summer I've been in the "nothing"category. And it shows. Even my skin has turned against me, with moutainish eruptions all over my chin. My hair is weird, and most of my pants are too tight, even my blog posts has become pretty b.o.r.i.n.g. Something MUST be done, or else I will just keep on getting frumpier and more zitty! And I will have NOTHING to wear, ever. It doesn't help matters that I was banned from straightening my hair by my hairdresser. I bought a straightener (see above) in 1997 and was amazed. Finally, straight hair was mine. Straight smooth hair. But over the last 11 years the poor thing got a little bit tired, so that by the end it wouldn't heat up enough and I would have to pull it over the same parts of my head again and again. In this process I apparently "burnt" the top part of my hair and was instructed to throw away my dear straightener and refrain from straightening for at least a month. Woe is me. Now the month is up but I have no straightener and the "good" ones are like $100, so . . . I stay curly for now. But not good curly, it is curling in weird new places and giving me an odd look, when I pull it back it is like the do Alice wore on the Brady Bunch. So in admitting that I am in a slump I vow to "un-slump" myself from this point forward.

So, hear me now. I am committed to going on my treadmill 5 times a week. I will stick to my Weight Watchers points of 22 and check in with my scale at least once a week. Giving me further motivation is the fact that we are going to Disney World in May. In 7 months I DO NOT want to be huffing and puffing across the Magic Kingdom with my thighs rubbing together in such a way that I may start a small fire. I don't want all our vacation memories to have me red-faced and sweating. Wish me luck . . . I will of course need it. And if anyone out there wants to "un-slump" themselves with me, let me know. There is strength in numbers!

The Great Escape

Twice a year I escape my family and spend the weekend away. I am ecstatic to report that THIS WEEKEND is one of those weekends! You see, every January I have an annual "Girls Weekend" with my college friends, a tradition that is going on it's twelfth year. But about three years ago we began a sister/cousin weekend in New Hampshire at the lake. This consists of me and my three cousins, and this year we have added Caitlen, my brothers girlfriend, to the group. (Welcome Caitlen). Last weekend the boys had their turn, and they spent two straight days having fires, drinking beer and eating red meat. Dennis came home in exactly the same clothes he left in on Friday afternoon, his bag unopened, smelling like fire, meat and B.O. Lovely! Our girls weekend is a little different. We will eat of course, there will be wine and other delicious alcoholic beverages consumed, and some shopping. We will attempt a fire, although in years past we have had varying degrees of success in this endeavor. Unlike the men who rarely if ever left the campground, we will go out to eat, where others will wait on us and there will not be crayons anywhere on the table. We will shop with no one tugging on our arm to leave. We will be making no mad dashes to the nearest restroom or stooping down to tie anyone's shoe. In fact, there will be no stooping the entire weekend. Oh joy, I am excited. Off to pack!

Family F.U.N.

Back home from the campground! We had a fantastic vacation which cannot possibly be summed up with one simple post. All I can say is 20 family members plus 1 cottage plus 2 trailers plus 3 bathrooms equals 1 hell of a good time. I am finally alone and able to sit down at the computer, Dennis having taken the kids swimming at his sisters because they did not spend nearly enough time in the water this week. Here is what went down over the past 7 days.

Adults = 14

Children = 6

Generations in attendance = 4

Beds = not nearly enough

Fights with my husband = 2

Campfires = 10

Hot dogs = many

Marshmallows toasted = 22 at least

Falls = 2 (b.t.w., neither were done by children)

Go Carts on the track inhabited by us = 9

Nice dinners out without children = 1

Margarita's = 6

Approximate beers consumed = 180 (whoa, we might have a problem)

Smirnoff Ice's = 24

Boxes of wine (so, we like boxed wine!) = 4

Glasses broken = 1

Hours spent swimming in the lake = 35

Dives off the dock = dozens

Blocked ears by this writer = 1 (going on 8 days now)

Rainstorms = 3

Puddles jumped in = 8

Bug bites received = 127

Bottles of sunscreen = 1

Pitchers of lemonade drunk = 13

Fights over the ridiculous X-box = 7

Fish caught = 16

Quiet = None

Pages read in my book = 1.5

Loads of laundry done since I've been home = 6

Walks around the lake done by me & Colleen = 1.5

Walks around the lake done by those of us who really walk = 6

Times my children had soap touch their bodies = 1

Pedicures = 4

New trailers bought = 1

My score in mini-golf where I kicked ass = 49

Little boys named Jack who learned how to swim = 1

Spending 168 hours straight with your entire family = priceless

Phew . . . I am ready to head back to work tomorrow exhausted. I love vacation and I love the campground, and it goes without saying that I LOVE my crazy family, but I am always happy to return home. I have this thing where I have to clean my house from top to bottom before we go anywhere, which my husband finds ridiculous but I find necessary. I just love coming home to a nice clean house, and since we have only been home now for a day it still hasn't had a chance to get really messed up again. I especially love my floors, my nice clean floors. Spending 7 days in a cottage where the floor is constantly gritty with sand & pine needles, I relish in the fact that I can walk without having stuff stuck to the bottom of my feet. Now I am off to make something to cook in my oven because if I have one more thing cooked on the grill right now I may puke.